Artist Blog VIII - Mary Frey

Mary Frey’s work had a very unique quality to it.  In particular I find this to be true in her latest series, “Imagining Fauna”.  This is definitely due to both her subject matter and choice of process.  One thing that I always try to concern myself with on my own project is that the process elevates the picture and doesn’t call attention to itself.  I feel it is a challenge in high dynamic range photography is to use the process in a way that it doesn’t just scream “HDR.” Mary Frey’s work uses a very old process know as wet processing: “Mary Frey photographs using E6 film and creates one-of-a kind wet plate images. [1]”  In Mary’s statement about the series she states “these animals, often portrayed in suspended animation, seem simultaneously strange, ghostly and beautiful. [2]”  Our subject matter may be rather different but our ideas and goals have similarities.    The qualities of being strange, ghostly, and beautiful are all aspects that I hoped to show in both “In our Wake” and “Artific.”   I feel that the objects I find possess some sort of lifelike quality. I was absolutely ecstatic when someone in one of my critiques said that the objects seemed personified.  This really stated to me that one of my goals had been meet.  People also seemed to be in agreement that in my ‘Artific’ series the process supports and enhances my concepts.

[1] Gentry, Erika. "Old Photography Techniques Made New « Erika Gentry: Imaging Arts, Education." Erika Gentry: Imaging Arts, Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. <http://erikagentry.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/old-photography-techniques-are-new-again/>.

Frey, Mary . "Mary Frey." Mary Frey - Photographer. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. <http://www.maryfrey.com/fauna/index.htm#title>.


Artist Biography

Mary Frey received her MFA from Yale University in 1979 and is currently a professor of photography at the Hartford Art School.

Frey has attained numerous awards for her work, most notably a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984 and two photography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and 1992. She was the recipient of a Te Foundation Fellowship in 2004. During the 1994-95 academic year Mary Frey was the Harnish Visiting Artist at Smith College, Northampton, MA and in the spring of 2001 she completed an artist’s residency at the Burren College of Art, County Clare, Ireland.

Her work has been exhibited extensively and is part of many public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Chicago Art Institute and the International Polaroid Collection.

Frey, Mary . "Mary Frey - bio." Mary Frey - Photographer. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. <http://www.maryfrey.com/bio/index.htm>.


link to artist website:  http://www.maryfrey.com

All Images © Mary Frey